Short Interest in Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) Increases By 5.6%

Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:IRDM) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,590,000 shares, a growth of 5.6% from the March 15th total of 3,400,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,120,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.2 days. Currently, 3.3% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Iridium Communications Trading Down 0.1 %

Iridium Communications stock opened at $24.65 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.02 billion, a PE ratio of 189.62 and a beta of 0.85. Iridium Communications has a 12-month low of $24.17 and a 12-month high of $68.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.65, a current ratio of 2.06 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $28.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.33.

Iridium Communications (NASDAQ:IRDM) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The technology company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.03 by $0.27. The firm had revenue of $194.74 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $192.13 million. Iridium Communications had a net margin of 1.95% and a return on equity of 1.58%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.01) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Iridium Communications will post 0.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Iridium Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.11%. Iridium Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 400.00%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Iridium Communications

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its position in shares of Iridium Communications by 11.9% in the 3rd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 54,578 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,498,000 after acquiring an additional 5,823 shares in the last quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lifted its position in shares of Iridium Communications by 92.7% in the 3rd quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 43,137 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,962,000 after acquiring an additional 20,752 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Iridium Communications by 2,918.9% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 603,900 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $24,857,000 after acquiring an additional 583,896 shares in the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP lifted its position in shares of Iridium Communications by 1,167.9% in the 3rd quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 51,310 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,334,000 after acquiring an additional 47,263 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ARK Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Iridium Communications by 12.9% in the 4th quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 2,173,964 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $89,480,000 after acquiring an additional 249,185 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Iridium Communications from $45.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. William Blair lowered shares of Iridium Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. TheStreet upgraded shares of Iridium Communications from a “d+” rating to a “c-” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. BWS Financial cut shares of Iridium Communications from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Raymond James decreased their price objective on shares of Iridium Communications from $53.00 to $48.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.80.

Iridium Communications Company Profile

Iridium Communications Inc provides mobile voice and data communications services and products to businesses, the United States and international governments, non-governmental organizations, and consumers worldwide. The company offers postpaid mobile voice and data satellite communications; prepaid mobile voice satellite communications; push-to-talk; broadband data; and Internet of Things (IoT) services.